siderable degree of coöperation might advantageously be followed by the various boards. The plan contemplates the securing of a Young People's Secretary who shall take the leadership in a general campaign of missionary education under some form of committee or council representing the various missionary interests entering into the arrangement. It is hoped that into such a merger for benevolent ends the work of the three Woman's Boards in behalf of the young may also be brought, so that the unification shall be complete. It is understood that each coöperating society is to be free to follow such special methods for promoting its interests among the young as may seem best, so long as these methods are not in conflict with the general policy adopted for all the societies.

If this plan of union is carried out, as now seems likely, a number of functions now performed by our Board in behalf of young people can be transferred to the new General Secretary. The Prudential Committee had this possibility in mind in reorganizing the Home Department as described above.

Prudential Committee. By a more careful organization of the work of the Prudential Committee it has been possible during the past year to reduce somewhat the number of meetings. Whereas formerly it was quite usual for the Committee to meet weekly, during the past year, as a rule, the Committee has been able to perform all its work meeting once a fortnight. There have been twenty-nine meetings during the year, at only one of which was there lack of a quorum.

District Offices. The work of our District Secretaries at New York, Chicago, and Berkeley, Cal., has proceeded along the usual lines except for the special efforts connected with the Joint Campaign with the Home Societies. Throughout this campaign our District Secretaries were able to render almost continuous service, and thereby to contribute materially to the successful outcome. Detailed reports by each District Secretary are appended to this report, so that further comment upon the operations of these offices is not necessary here.

At the last meeting of the Board consideration was given to the creation of a new district between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains, and the Prudential Committee were authorized to organize such a district should it seem best upon further investigation. Such study as we have been able to give to the subject has inclined us to take no further steps at present. It is likely that in the near future it may seem best to open a district office in some city central to the region described, but various considerations incline us not to enter into such a movement at the present time

It will not be news to most of the members of the Board that Dr. C. C. Creegan, who for five years acted as Field Secretary and for sixteen years has represented the Board as Secretary in charge of the Middle District, has accepted the call to the presidency of Fargo College, North Dakota, and retired from our service October 1. The heartiest well wishes of the Prudential Committee and officers of the Board go with Dr. Creegan as he takes up his new work, and we are confident that all friends of the Board,

especially those in the Middle District, will join with us in expressing hearty appreciation for the earnest and devoted services of Dr. Creegan during these many years.

Necrology. During the year eight of the Corporate Members of the Board have passed away. The number is smaller than usual, but the reading of the list of names will impress upon all what a severe loss the Board has sustained. They are as follows: Richard H. Stearns, of Massachusetts, elected in 1874; Gen. Eliphalet Whittlesey, of the District of Columbia, elected in 1877; Rev. George B. Barnes, of Minnesota, elected in 1890; Rev. John D. Kingsbury, of Utah, elected in 1890; Mortimer Blake Mason, of Massachusetts, elected in 1897; Rev. Robert M. Woods, of Massachusetts, elected in 1900; D. W. Williams, of Connecticut, elected in 1906; and H. J. Hollister, of Michigan, elected in 1904.

II. The Year to Come

An important consideration in determining the financial program which we have followed during the past year was the great value of entering upon our centennial year free from debt and with our faces turned squarely toward the future. To have been handicapped by indebtedness at this time would have been to lose in large measure the special advantage afforded by the rounding out of our first hundred years as a Board. As it is we are now clear of the past and ready for an advance movement on an extensive scale. The year upon which we now enter should be in every sense

A Great Missionary Year

How shall we make it so? Fortunately we have abundance of good material ready to our hands. In the Apportionment Plan, the Laymen's Missionary Movement, and the Endowment Scheme for our Higher Educational Institutions, we find three lines of activity already marked out for us, and only waiting a favorable opportunity in order that they may become effective in a large way. If we report a considerable gain in our current receipts and permanent funds a year hence, it is likely to occur through the effectiveness of these special plans. Giving, then, to these agencies the prominence they deserve, we will outline a program for the year under twelve heads.

1. Financial Objective. Through the Apportionment Plan we are committed to a benevolent budget for the denomination which contemplates $1,000,000 a year for the American Board. Of this sum $560,000 is expected of the churches for the work of the Board proper, $300,000 for the work of the three Woman's Boards, and the balance it is calculated should be covered by the average receipts from legacies and interest. The one plain duty before the denomination at the present time is to raise the budget, and so far as the Board is concerned the present year affords the best possible opportunity. Plainly our objective for the general giving of the churches should be $560,000. That would mean a gain of $142,743 over the past year

(aside from what was contributed for the debt) and of $167,710 over the year before. Such an additional sum applied judiciously would materially strengthen and advance our work in nearly every field. Coming after fourteen years of grinding economy and retrenchment, it would hearten our missionaries immeasurably. A larger objective might be urged and certainly should be kept in mind as an ultimate goal, but for the present it is all important that we accomplish this particular thing we have set about to do. The method known as the Apportionment Plan now has almost universal indorsement among us, having been approved by the National Council and some twenty-six state conferences. After the past two years of discussion and experimentation, the year has come when the thing should be carried through, and unless we mistake the spirit of our churches earnest efforts will be made in that direction by the missionary committees in state conferences and local associations. Each benefiting society, however, must urge its own claims and uphold the scheme as a whole if we are to see success this coming year. If the Corporate Members of this Board will apply themselves to advancing the apportionment idea in their local churches and the ecclesiastical bodies with which they are connected, they will render a large service not only to this Board, but to all our Congregational societies.

Undoubtedly there are and will be infelicities in the working of so extensive a plan as this; but the spirit of coöperation is in the air, and it is evident most of our churches are ready for such a union movement. If Congregationalists are to do their missionary work properly they must do it together. To do it together requires some plan. The Apportionment Plan has been decided upon as, all things being considered, the best possible. The first duty of the hour, then, is to raise the budget.

2. Non-contributing Churches. A feature in the Board's work which never fails to cause astonishment when mentioned in public is the large number of churches which make no contribution whatever to foreign missions. During the past year, out of 6,006 Congregational churches, 2,450 sent no gift to the Board, either to our own treasury or the treasury of a Woman's Board. The year before the figure stood at 2,217. Has not the time come for the wiping out of this sad record? The Prudential Committee propose as one feature of our year's work an earnest effort to secure a gift from every Congregational church on our lists. We would aim at an absolutely clean record in this respect. We believe if we set about to accomplish this thing it can be done. The following plan is suggested. Let the non-contributing churches be divided among the Corporate Members for cultivation. Counting upon 300 Corporate Members as available for this purpose, there would be an average of about eight for each. The means used should be correspondence and visitation, and a following up of the effort until in each instance a gift has been secured and forwarded to the Board. There is no church so poor that it cannot make some offering to this work. There is no member of any church so poor that he cannot contribute his mite. We believe every true church of Christ among us can be brought into this movement when properly approached. But it will require tactful

and persistent work on the part of our Corporate Members. Gentleness and not force should be our weapon. The approach should be a sympathetic one. In many cases visits will have to be made and offerings received on the spot. For the sure promotion of this plan we urge that the bulk of the work be performed between now and January 1. If the Board approves of this plan the District Secretaries will apportion the non-contributing churches to the Corporate Members within the next four weeks.

3. Laymen's Missionary Movement. It is most timely that the national campaign of this splendid new agency falls entirely within our centennial year. Conventions are to be held in some sixty of our leading cities, ending with a national congress in Chicago in April. Eighteen of the cities in their schedule may be regarded as Congregational centers. One of our leading activities should be to concentrate upon these cities. These great interdenominational conventions have a power peculiarly their own. There is a massing of religious forces, a concentration of attention, and a sense of unity and power in such gatherings of immense value to all the foreign boards. In the atmosphere of these conventions things are possible surpassing our largest expectations.

Such meetings, however, only prepare the way for aggressive work, and this work must be carried on by denominational agencies. Unless we as a Board stand ready to follow up the Laymen's Campaign by practical measures the golden harvest will not be reaped. It is proposed to have representatives of the Board visit each Congregational center in advance. of the campaign, in order for conference with the local leaders in regard to the participation of Congregationalists in the meetings and to help organize a follow-up campaign, looking to definite financial results. Such preliminary conferences have already been held in a number of cities.

In utilizing this Laymen's Campaign for denominational ends we are convinced that the best results will be secured by broadening the scope of the movement so as to include our home missionary responsibilities. The Laymen's Missionary Movement, as an interdenominational organization, stands exclusively for foreign missions, and in view of its origin and special purpose its leaders have felt that it should continue to stand for the great appeal of non-Christian lands. The emphasis which they place upon the world-purpose of Christ is sorely needed in every denomination. On every hand the rallying of the laymen to this long-neglected cause is regarded as promising as it is opportune.

When, however, the appeal has been made and it is left to denominational agencies to secure financial results, a plan must be devised which fits into denominational policy and which recognizes denominational responsibilities already assumed. With us, for instance, it would be manifestly unwise and unfair to urge our laymen interested in foreign missions to break with the Apportionment Plan and set up a standard of their own. Loyalty to the cause of Christ in our home country, now beset with most serious religious problems, as well as loyalty to our Congregational fellowship, requires us to take a broad view of our own appeal, and to advocate such a compre

hensive policy for denominational missionary work as will bring an advance all around the circle.

In the light of the Together Campaign we certainly can afford to join with our brethren who by choice of the churches stand primarily for the home work in such special efforts as may grow out of the Laymen's Campaign meetings. We are of the opinion that the Board will gain more by gearing its centennial plans to the general movement of the denomination than by marking out an entirely independent course. We believe the value

of the special appeal for the foreign work can be conserved in all our churches in the midst of plans which look to group action on the part of our seven societies when it comes to such an extensive campaign as this.

In advocating a comprehensive policy for distinctively lay movements. among us, we find our opinion confirmed by the attitude of other foreign boards. In all the leading denominations there is a strong movement setting in looking to the unification of their benevolent appeals and the reconstruction of their methods for missionary support. This is notably true among the Presbyterians, Baptists, Methodists, and Episcopalians. We find ourselves borne along on a tide which is sweeping through the ecclesiastical world, and which is nowhere more evident than in our own denominational life. It is being discovered that the problem of benevolence in the church is one and not many. Underlying conditions must be settled before any single line of work can profit greatly. Pastors who are filled by the missionary spirit find themselves unable to push one cause unless an all-around policy can prevail. Fair-minded laymen are more and more taking the same position. Unification in benevolence is a watchword of the hour. Under these conditions prevailing so generally in the religious world we need no hesitate to align our Board with a Congregational Laymen's Campaign, should such be projected in the interest of both foreign and home missions.

4. Woman's Boards. The three Woman's Boards have always been in the van of forward movements, often setting an example to the parent organization in the matter of enterprise and courageous planning. We are confident they will be quick to seize the special opportunity afforded by the Board's centennial, and undertake to secure a material increase in their gifts. During the past year the Woman's Board of Missions of Boston raised $150,056.56, the Woman's Board of Missions of the Interior $94,453.25. and the Woman's Board of Missions of the Pacific $11,321.50, a total of $255,831.31. If they could lift this total to $300,000 during 1909-10 they would reach the figure suggested by the National Advisory Committee, and materially forward the movement looking to the Board securing $1,000,000 before our next annual meeting.

5. The Endowment of Our Higher Educational Institutions. At the meeting in Brooklyn one year ago there was placed before the Board a plan looking to the raising of $2,000,000 as a general endowment fund for our fourteen colleges and twelve theological seminaries. It is not proposed to secure such an amount through church offerings, but by large gifts from individuals. The coming year should afford special opportunity in this